Product Description

Xsight Color Universal Remote

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Product Details

Warranty	1 year warranty
Publisher	Acoustic Research
Features	Controls up to 15 devices One touch controls your entire home theater Effortless navigation with a full color LCD screen Remote guided setup with no manual needed Replace all of your remotes with a single remote
Color	Black
Brand	Audiovox
EAN	0044476064081
Legal Disclaimer	We do not in any way represent that any part we sell is legal to possess in your jurisdiction. Check with you local authorities to ensure it is legal for you to possess before buying!
UPC	044476064081
Label	Acoustic Research
MPN	ARRX15G
Studio	Acoustic Research
Title	Acoustic Research ARRX15G Xsight Color Universal 15 Device Remote Control
Batteries Included	Yes
Model	ARRX15G
Manufacturer	Acoustic Research

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Customer Reviews

Not what I hoped for

Review by eschrip, 2010-08-15

If you are looking at this remote as an option instead of a Harmony, stop. Go buy any other Harmony remote before you buy this one. I purchased one of these after having owned a harmony for 4-5 years, and I thought I would try one since I assumed that Acoustic Research would be attempting to match functionality since they where clearly trying to sell them into the same market.

If you have never used a Harmony, you will be very impressed by the features and ease of set up. But it just doesn't quite mesure up to even the lowest level Harmony when it comes to just plainly how it works.

When you use start using the remote it seems to do everything that you want, but because it doesn't really remember the expected stated of your devices the remote doesn't have the ability to help deal with the common situations that occur.

No matter how good a remote is, if something gets in the way of an IR receiver on the device, it just doesn't execute the behavior. So if it is the dog, a child or a house guest getting comfortable, sometimes any remote will fail to turn on / off or change inputs. With Harmony, you press the Help key, it knows what to do most of the time to insure that everything is set up correctly. And after that it will walk you through the things to do to help make it better. And no, it isn't the same thing as just trying to do the same function again. The XSight Assist feature isn't the same thing by any means, and it is a fatal flaw as far as I am concerned. If you are planning on buying a remote to help someone that finds the mess of a typical Home Theatre setup then this remote is NOT the one that you want. If you are just trying to move up a notch of remotes from a traditional All-in-one, then you will probably be ok.

But ultimately, if you buy this remote, the first time you really use a Harmony, you will wish you had your money back so you could apply it to one of the Harmony remotes.

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If you have had a harmony remote, buy another

Review by C. Witherspoon, 2010-08-10

Honestly, This remote isnt exactly horrible. It has a few features that harmony remotes do not have posess, but the implementation of the remote, software, and programing just arent there.

My biggest gripe with the remote is that it did not possess "state" memory, meaning that It would not remember which devices were actually powered on and off. Yes, there are ways to get around this, but it requires extensive programing of the remote, and even after roughly two hours, I still couldnt figure it out.

Xsight doesnt view Activities the same as the harmony does. They are simply macros, an constructed list of commands that the remote will perform sequentially. Now, this isnt a problem if all of your devices have whats called discrete codes, meaning that there is one specific code to turn for example the tv on and another code to turn it off and so forth. Otherwise, You will find your self constantly having to turn on devices because the remote has powered them off. You could also leave all of your devices on, but frankly thats just a waste of electricity.

Within my setup, the only devices that I had were descre, consisted of my LG 50" Plasma (50PK750) and my Xbox 360. Again, this ment that there was a seperate on and off command comming from the remote. I tried to set my remote up so that it would toggle on and off devices as they were needed. When programing the remote you will encounter the choices for discrete on/off, regular on/off, and none. When using on/off feature, it is really hit and miss if the devices will be remain on or cut off.

In my case, I setup a macro to turn on my discrete, individual macros to turn on certain activities, and a macro to "turn off" everything. The reason why I had to create the last macro as well, is that the remote will not turn all of your devices off at one time. The only way to do it is through macros. If you simply hit the power button, you will turn off what ever device you have the power button set to. This was probably the main thing that pissed me off. With that being said, again, ensuring that the appropriate devices were on was pretty much hit and miss.

Harmony's help button is prominate on the xsight as well, but it does not assist you through determining whats wrong, however its kind of funny because it is called the assist button. The assist button is also at the top of the touch screen and is constantly on, so you loose 2 spaces off of your devices buttons (sorry if that didnt make sense).

Overall, this is a very good remote if you have discrete codes for your devices, or if you have never experienced a harmony. If Acoustic Research was able to implement better firmware for this product, I wouldnt have returned the remote and brought the Harmony one.

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pretty good

Review by sam, 2010-07-13

The remote I bought for my dad so he didn't have to use five controllers for one thing. He says he loves it but the setup is not as easy as they make it seem. If your looking for something to organize all your remotes and dont need something to blow you out of the water, this is the remote for you.

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Nicely made, on big side, some buttons too small, good choice for price.

Review by J. Russell, 2010-05-12

PROS: Attractive well built, nice screen, great back-light, huge online device codes database, code learning
feature for unknown codes, each family member has their own Favs, a good choice for the novice do-it-
yourself Home Theater user, good value for price.

CONS: Big, on heavy side, batteries don't last long enough, some buttons too small and too close together,
website not designed for the more experienced user creating custom command strings(macros), slower to
use than standard remote due to screen lookups, Favs must be added online.

Any remote controlling a Home Theater type of multiple electronic devices requires some level expertise of programming remotes, else you are going to be frustrated. But I will say this remote will require the least expertise if you follow the Manual step-by-step religiously, because XSight has gone out of their way to make setting up a complex A/V system about as easy as it is going to get. The trade-off is if you have more expertise and want to jump right in creating or customizing your own command strings, it is not as friendly to you. NOTE: The XSight website provided to help you through the setup requires a Windows ONLY XP w/Service Pac 2 or later O/S, and Internet Explorer ONLY browser, and when you are connected to the PC, even when the Remotes display is not light, its processor is still running and it will quickly discharge alkaline batteries.

Now for the possible disappointments to some. This remote is big, 9" X 2 1/4", and heavy 3/4Lb. But any remote with this size screen will likely be as large. There is a trade-off. Secondly, it uses 3 AA batteries so this will add to the weight if you use standard alkaline, which you will not want to because it will use them fairly quickly, especially if you hooked up to the PC USB. You will want to get lighter and rechargeable NiMH batteries at some point, and I would suggest the Hybrids or PreCharged NiMH's because they will not self-discharge as fast as standard NiMH's, important for a remote just lying around most of the time. In this Remotes favor, it does an excellent job of automatically turning itself off, letting you choose the on time, and letting you choose to use the Auto-On Tilt motion detector or not, when you pick it up. I would turn Tilt-Off, especially if you use non-rechargeable alkaline batteries since one press of any button turns on the display, but the Tilt feature works very well.

What I liked the most about this Remote is the ability to organize channel Favs into categories, called Profiles, with a title and even a logo or picture of your choice, for example Mom, Dad, Kids, Educational, News etc. What I didn't like is how small and close together some of the keys were, especially the screen control key, the ones you will find your using the most because each most screens only show three choices, and the scrolling to get to what you want can be a pain, even with back-lighting. Why they choose to make all the other keys almost too big (if that's possible :) ), and the screen control ones so small and close together, is know only to them I guess.

I will point out the screen control bar has been moved away from other keys and made bigger on the XSight Touch screen model of this remote, though the other small key have not. The difference between the Touch and this Color XSight model, aside from the much higher cost, is just three things; the screen is a Touch instead of this models side keys, it uses a proprietary LiION rechargeable battery with stand like a cell phone or ipod, and it is RF ready meaning it can control an optional RF Extender to replace the limited distance Infrared(IR) standard used in all remotes. Otherwise the models are exactly the same using the same
layout(with the one scroll bar mentioned above), same firmware/features, and same website software for setup.

Bottom line for me, if you are not able to setup a more complicated A/V arrangement and do not want to hire an A/V installer, then this Remote may very well do the job for you at the cost or less than an Installer visit. At the same time, you will have the trade-offs of size, weight, battery life, and need to scroll screens to get to certain buttons available on screen only. One big advantage to screened soft-buttons however is you will now have access to almost all of all your original remotes buttons in one place and you can even assign ones of your choice to any hard button on the remote, exchanging the buttons original function for one you prefer, for each of your A/V Devices.

However, if you are more experienced Home Theater sort of A/V equipment, then the online website is not as flexible and friendly as you would find at say, Logitech's Harmony line site, but you can get what you want out of this remote, just with more time and head-scratching getting past the novice 'hand-holder' step-by-step software approach.

If you choose this Color Model for the price advantage over the Touch, then be sure to get rechargeable AA Hybrid batteries. Hybrids are chargeable using the same NiMH charger you may already have. They will not self-discharge when not in use like standard rechargeables. Be advised the Touch Screen will not solve the small control buttons too close together, though the Touch's bigger and space away scroll bar will to some degree. The nice advantage to the Color's AA use is, unlike cell phone and ipod batteries, AA are available anywhere and are not expensive like proprietary LiIONs found in the Touch.

Hope this has helped those trying to make a choice here, and it is worth reading the other reviews found here and at Amazon's XSight Touch Model page to get other pros/cons. I would say this remote is a good buy for the money, but certainly not for $100 to $299 price sold else where. Fyi, the Xsight is exactly the same product as the Nevo line sold to Installers at $299. It is also sold under the Audiovox label.

Happy Shopping!

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Does Not Work With All Devices Coupled With Poor Support

Review by Jeffrey N. Fritz, 2010-05-12

If the AR XSight Touch works properly for all your devices, consider yourself fortunate. Because if it doesn't AR support (Audiovox, actually) will abandon you. At least that has been my experience with this remote.

While I wanted to like this device, it's not possible in my circumstances.. Especially when Level 2 Tech Support can't offer customers a bug fix and finally stops communicating with you entirely. They allowed (or maybe I allowed) enough time to pass so that the device can no longer be returned to the seller. Now I am stuck with a remote that I can't really use and can't return.

So, what's the problem? Pressing a channel softkey issues a single, double or triple digit. On other words, pressing or tap channel 2 sends either 2, 22 or 222 is sent to my Samsung HD Digital tuner.

You might want to stay away from this product.

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